Early life

One of the greatest directors of all time and probably the best of his generation is 3-Time Academy Award Winning director Steven Spielberg. Born December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Spielberg, as with many directors today, began experimenting with film early in his life. In his early teens, he started making movies that he would show to his family (The Biography Channel). To accommodate his father’s job, Spielberg and his family often moved around to different cities. After doing a couple short films, Spielberg produced his first feature-length film “Firelight” at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona on a budget of only $400. The film ended up making a solid profit after it was shown at a local theater (The Biography Channel). Upon his parents’ divorce, Spielberg moved with his father to California. He repeatedly tried to get into the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television, but he failed to gain admission into the schools. He eventually attended California State University in Long Beach and got his first position as an unpaid intern in the editing department of Universal Studios. His job at Universal essentially came by accident as, while on a tour bus, Spielberg jumped off the bus and wandered inside one of Universal’s studio buildings. Seeing Spielberg’s interest and enthusiasm, the workers at Universal allowed him to return and watch the directors at work. Spielberg came back every day for the rest of the summer, even finding an office and moving in (The Biography Channel). During this time at Universal, Spielberg released his first professional film, “Amblin”. The 24-minute picture impressed the Universal executives to such a degree that they signed him as a television director. As a result, Spielberg promptly dropped out of college in 1969, and interestingly wouldn’t end up finishing his degree until decades later in 2002 (The Biography Channel).

First professional feature-length film

After directing several TV shows such as “Night Gallery”, “Name of the Game”, and “Columbo”, Spielberg eventually created his first professional feature film “Sugarland Express” in 1974. Though the film was not a box office success, Spielberg was viewed as a potential star by many critics and industry executives.

The following year, however, would launch Spielberg into international stardom. In 1975, he released the horror/thriller Jaws, a film based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley about a giant killer shark that goes on a feeding frenzy of the inhabitants of Amity Island. On a budget of $8 million, the film grossed an incredible $191 million in the year of its release. Worldwide, the film ended up grossing $430.5 million. Jaws ended up winning 3 Oscars for Best Editing, John William’s iconic haunting music for Best Original Score, and Best Sound. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, but lost to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Importantly, because of its massive success at the box office, Jaws was credited as the first ever blockbuster film. Spielberg himself saw the film as a somewhat accidental success, as the robotic shark used in the film suffered countless technical problems. As a result, Spielberg had to revert to using POV (Point-of-View) shots for the shark, which incidentally ended up creating a more horrifying effect for the audience.

Due to its massive success, Jaws was credited as the first ever summer blockbuster and became the first of New Hollywood's "blockbuster era".

After Jaws, Spielberg’s next film was the science fiction film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg re-casted Richard Dreyfuss from Jaws and teamed up again with composer John Williams. The film garnered 6 Academy Award nominations, including Best Director for Spielberg, and eventually won one for Best Cinematography. Spielberg next suffered his first “flop” film, 1941, in 1979. However, Spielberg quickly rebounded with several action-adventure blockbusters. The first of these was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which ended up being the first in the Indiana Jones series and the biggest picture of 1981, earning Spielberg another Best Director nomination. He followed Raiders of the Lost Ark with another science fiction film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which was nominated for 9 Academy Awards. The film was a huge critical and box office success and ended up becoming the highest-grossing movie in film history (at the time).

After directing the next two “Indiana Jones” sequels, (with several other successful films in between), Spielberg directed another iconic film, Jurassic Park, for which he was praised for creating the best sequences of awe and terror since Jaws. The film, like Jaws, was based on a novel of the same name (this one by Michael Crichton). The story centered on a paleontologist who, with his girlfriend, visits a remote island off the coast of Costa Rica, where dinosaurs have been genetically cloned. However, after a power outage from a storm, the electric fences fail and the dinosaurs are released from their paddocks, and terror ensues. The film had ground-breaking special effects (which still hold up today) from ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) animation and Stan Winston’s animatronics. The film won 3 Academy Awards for Best Sound, Best Effects and Sound Effects Editing, and for Best Visual Effects. Jurassic Park was also a box-office smash and ended up overtaking Spielberg’s earlier film, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial to become the highest grossing film of all time (James Cameron's Titanic would later take over that mark in 1997).

Jurassic Park used groundbreaking special effects from ILM animation and Stan Winston's animatronics. Incredibly, these effects even hold up today, over 20 years later.

Despite easily being the most successful director of his period, it wasn’t until his 1993 film Schindler’s List that Spielberg received his first Academy Award for Best Director. The film centered on Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a German industrialist who helped save over 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Over the following years, Spielberg repeatedly continued to create critical and box office smashes. Among these was the 1998 war film, Saving Private Ryan, which took in 5 Academy Awards. He continues to make these successful films, even up to 2012’s historical film, Lincoln, which won 2 Academy Awards. In conclusion, there is no doubt that Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors to ever come out of the film industry. He has written, directed, and produced almost countless blockbusters that we know and love today and has made an incredible and unforgettable resume for himself. Because of these massive successes, Spielberg is one of the wealthiest directors in the industry today and has been a household name for several decades. The film industry owes a debt of gratitude to this incredibly influential director.

Trademarks

Spielberg has numerous trademarks. He frequently hires 5-Time Academy Award winning composer John Williams to score the music for his films. Also, he frequently casts Tom Hanks, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Frank Welker, and Tom Cruise. His films usually reference World War II, and he oftentimes references Disney films, music, or theme parks. In the stories of his films, the protagonists often come from families with divorced parents. This reflects Spielberg’s own experience with his parents’ divorce. In using special effects for his films, Spielberg has consistently used Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) for animation. The only exception was The Terminal, whose effects were done by Digital Imageworks. In his camera work, Spielberg frequently uses the “dolly zoom” camera effect, which conveys an emotional impact or realization in a character. This was most notably used in Jaws when Chief Brody witnesses a shark attack (IMDB).

Written by Anthony Watkins

The trademark "dolly zoom" that Spielberg uses in some of his films. He first used it in his 1975 blockbuster, Jaws. To achieve the "dolly zoom", one zooms in with the camera while dollying (or moving) backwards with the camera.